This was an exciting moment — maybe too exciting, from Kavi’s point of view. My first indication that something was amiss was a panicked shout from downstairs:
“Mommy! Come here!”
I came down to find Kavi jammed into a corner of the little kitchen, Anand on the futon-turned-bed, and right under the stairs, this guy. Kavi was freaking out.
I said, “okay, hang on a sec, let me get my phone and look up what we’re supposed to do, just don’t move” which I’m not sure Kavi appreciated as appropriate motherly rescue. But when I looked it up, it seemed clear that this was some kind of herbivorous lizard (no, iPhone, I don’t think this is either a Mexican mud turtle or a common house gecko, your lizard ID feature needs some work).
They’re not aggressive, so if you leave them alone, they’ll just wander off on their own, hopefully. If they do get scared, they might bite, but you’re talking about an annoying emergency room trip, not anything life-threatening. They’re actually a protected species in Florida (even though this variety is maybe also an invasive one), so you’re not supposed to kill them. (Looks like that changed recently, but you can still get in trouble unless you can kill them humanely.)
I told Kavi all this. She was not pleased. But we waited, and after a little while, he’d wandered far enough away that I told her to come towards me and climb onto her bed. (Yes, lizards can climb, of course they can, but I figured it would make her feel better, and it did.) Eventually (maybe 20 minutes later) he did find his way out of the townhouse, and promptly climbed up onto the outdoor furniture to bask in the sunshine and take a nap. He was gone by the time we went out later, though.
Kavi’s friends gave her a hard time for having the doors open, but there weren’t any windows on the first floor, and we definitely wanted to catch the breeze, so y’know, this is just what you deal with, I think. Though for the rest of the trip, we were more careful about closing the double doors most of the way, instead of leaving them completely wide open all day.
Photo from Kavi, video in next post.
